The performance capability of fiber-optic (or optical-fiber) communication networks is superior in many respects to that provided by standard wireline networks. For example, fiber-optic cable bandwidth is much greater than copper wireline bandwidth allowing more communication at greater speed. Therefore, networks may be generally evolving in the direction of optical-fiber links. However, evolution from copper wire to fiber-optic cable may not be moving as fast as it otherwise could because working with copper wire is easier than working with optical-fiber. For example, copper wire connections can be fully automated, which is not the case with optical-fiber links.
The current state of fiber-optic networks, e.g., in a central office of a telecommunications company, includes usage of a manual patch panel, where all fiber-optic connections are still made by hand by highly-skilled and highly-trained technicians. This is costly and time-consuming. Although fully automatic optical switches are commercially available for certain applications in a fiber-optic network, they have not replaced the manual patch panel, at least because these switches are constrained to connect only input ports to output ports. In other words, input ports cannot be connected to other input ports in a commercially-available optical switch. This is illustrated in FIG. 1 where an optical switch is schematically shown as connecting input fiber on its left-hand side to output fiber on its right hand side. As depicted, this allows any currently unused (i.e., unoccupied) input port to be automatically switched, but only to any unused output port, and is an example of “any unused input port to any unused output port” capability.
However, in using a standard, manual optical patch panel, not only can one manually cross-connect any unused input port to any unused output port, one can also connect any unused input port to any other unused input port. This is illustrated in FIG. 2 which shows an end view or edge view of a manually-operable fiber patch panel. As can be seen, any signals coming from internal network equipment at the lower left of the drawing can be patched through the right-hand side optical cross-connectors (i.e., jumpers) to either other internal network equipment via, e.g., connection 201, or to outside plant cable via, e.g., connection 202, the outside plant cable being shown at the upper left-hand side of the drawing. This is an example of “any unused input port switched to any other unused port” capability which is desirable, but currently available only in manual format for fiber-optic cable. Since fiber-optic manual connections are very time consuming and expensive, there is a need to automate these connections, and subject matter of Applicants' instant specification, drawings and claimed embodiments satisfies that need.